Wysham family at Staunton near Coleford (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Monday, March 10, 2014, 16:10 (3912 days ago) @ christine woodward

Hi Christine, I don't know Staunton at all well, hopefully someone else does, although of course a lot will have changed between 1650 and nowadays, and long before O/S maps etc.

However a question, do you know if it's likely to be named after an actual hill, as I'd first thought, or after someone named Hill ?.
I ask as the authorative British History site for Staunton includes this map from 1608, so about your 1650, which shows a Hill's Grove near the village centre.
??
Map here http://www.british-history.ac.uk/image.aspx?compid=23263&filename=fig12.gif&pub...

And describes the village c1650, as
"In 1608 the village comprised c. 50 houses: the street was closely built up between the green and the Cliff at the parish boundary and there were a few scattered dwellings east of the green. During the 17th and 18th centuries the village contracted, losing most of its western houses and becoming concentrated in the part of the street between the green and Lower Cross; nine houses were in decay in 1653 and in 1769 there were 12 decayed houses or empty sites."

OR Is it possible it was actually called HALL House, see this from the same history;

"In 1608 much of the high west ridge was waste land called Staunton Meend, covering 123a. A part of it, or possibly the whole, was evidently the land called Staunton Meend Ridges which, with other land called Knockalls further south, was granted by the Crown in fee in 1629 to the Hall family, owners of Staunton manor and the large Highmeadow estate.

OR Perhaps the much later Hill Farm was named after it, or at least nearby ?

"Of the farms based in the village in 1843 only Staunton farm (then known as Hill farm), with 89 a., was more than a smallholding."

All quotes from: 'Staunton', A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp. 272-284.
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23263
Date accessed: 10 March 2014.

All guesswork sadly, especially in an area with lots of hills and Halls etc.
Sorry for just providing questions not answers !

If you've not seen it there's MUCH more detailed history of Staunton at the above link, hope you find something usefull.